Biotech Corn Found in Mexico, Says Government April 22, 2002

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In a development that many scientists say is no cause for alarm, the Mexican government said it has found biotech corn in Mexico.

Speaking at The Hague in the Netherlands April 18, 2002, Mexican government officials said tests have detected biotech corn in the states of Oaxaca and Puebla, reported the United Kingdom-based Guardian newspaper.

The announcement is the latest in a series of claims and counter-claims about the presence of biotech corn — or maize as it is known in many areas of the world — in Mexico, where it was first cultivated some 5,000 years ago.

Earlier in April, Nature, one of the world’s most respected scientific journals, said it was wrong to publish an article in its Nov. 29, 2001, issue that claimed genes from biotech corn had crossed with traditional varieties of corn in Mexico.

"The evidence available is not sufficient to justify the publication of the original paper," wrote the editor of Nature in a two-paragraph editorial note in the April 4, 2002, issue.

The publication of the initial article by University of California—Berkeley researchers David Quist and Ignacio Chapela created a stir in the ongoing debate about biotechnology. Critics seized on the study as evidence that biotech crops pose a threat to genetic diversity of corn in Mexico.

But the Nature debate had more to do with the science upon which the Quist and Chapela study was based and less to do with the actual effect biotech corn could have on biodiversity in Mexico.

In fact, scientists who support biotechnology say even if biotech corn is found in Mexico, it will not have a negative impact on traditional varieties.

"There is no evidence that this represents a threat for maize biodiversity in Mexico," said Luis Herrera, the director of the Mexico-based Center for the Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV), in a Nov. 29, 2001, statement on the issue.

For decades, traditional varieties of Mexican maize have commingled with high-tech hybrids produced by multi-national firms with no detrimental effects, he said.

"During all this period of time, our native materials, and materials enhanced through conventional techniques, have had the chance to exchange genes and ... far from eliminating our domestic materials' biodiversity, have rather enriched them," he said.

Several scientists say the real threat to biodiversity is the exodus of small farmers who are leaving their small plots in Mexico for more lucrative jobs in the cities of Mexico and the United States.

"The most important consideration in the loss of diversity has to do with the fact that farmers are simply abandoning farming," Mauricio Bellon, a sociologist at the International Center for the Improvement of Wheat and Maize (CIMMYT), told National Public Radio (NPR) Dec. 18, 2001.

Bellon added that corn is a crop and must be cultivated by humans in order to survive and thrive. "Human diversity is fundamental for the maintenance of the biological diversity," he told NPR.

The Mexican government does not permit the planting of biotech corn, but does allow the enhanced corn to be imported as food or feed. It’s been suggested by some that imported seed — some of it enhanced through biotechnology — may have been planted unwittingly by Mexican farmers.

Exequiel Ezcurra, chairman of the National Institute of Ecology (NIE), told the Mexican newspaper Milenio Oct. 12, 2001, that the source of biotech corn could have been corn distributed by Diconsa, a governmental enterprise that distributes basic essentials to Mexicans. "We all know that Mexico imports transgenic maize from the United States, and the analysis performed (by INE) found one-third of corn grain sold by Diconsa to be transgenic," he said.

An Oct. 1, 2001, article in Milenio quotes a peasant farmer who acknowledged planting corn grain received from Diconsa. "I wasn’t the only one who did it," said Olga Toro Maldonado. "Other peasants did, too; we wanted to try that seed. No one told us that that corn should not be planted. If we did so, it was out of ignorance."

According to The Guardian, the Mexican government — to avoid the furor created by the original Nature paper — intends to have its research carefully reviewed by peers before offering it for publication in a scientific journal. 

For more information see:

AgBioWorld.org press release: Scientists Say Mexican Biodiversity is Safe

AgBioWorld.org information: Mexican Maize Resource Library

The Guardian: Mexico’s Vital Gene Reservoir Polluted by Modified Maize

Science: Transgenic Maize in Mexico: No Need for Concern